This year I seem to have a class that cannot grasp the concept of retelling the story. They will tell me the events but use "he" and "it" instead of proper nouns. We did the DRA book 4 test on one today. It's about a boy & a hat. Her retelling "He lost it. He looked for it. He didn't find it. Then he found it. Then he put it on his head." Never did she tell me WHO or WHAT she was talking about. This is a similar problem among all of my kids. How do I teach this?

Throughout the year we teach plot structure. First in shared reading with a big book. We must tag with sticky notes the character(s) or main character, setting, problem and resolution. Right now all we are doing is tagging those elements. We will begin writing them down on recording paper and towards the end of the year use plot structure to write summaries. Right now we are verbally just retelling the story. Model how to retell the story starting from the very beginning and using the characters names and such. The students can retell with a partner. Model, model, model!!

Our school is doing Writing Alive curriculum this year. We have a graphic organizer where we draw the pieces in order to retell. For a quick retell you can also use your fingers (hold onto your thumb with the other hand) First finger = somebody wants... Next finger = But... Ring finger = So, ___ Pinkie = In the end

So, to retell the Itsy Bitsy Spider you would say:
"The spider WANTS to climb up the water spout"
"BUT, the rain comes and washes him away"
"So, the sun comes up and dries the rain"
"IN THE END, the spider climbs back up the spout"

Our school is doing Writing Alive curriculum this year. We have a graphic organizer where we draw the pieces in order to retell. For a quick retell you can also use your fingers (hold onto your thumb with the other hand) First finger = somebody wants... Next finger = But... Ring finger = So, ___ Pinkie = In the end

So, to retell the Itsy Bitsy Spider you would say:
"The spider WANTS to climb up the water spout"
"BUT, the rain comes and washes him away"
"So, the sun comes up and dries the rain"
"IN THE END, the spider climbs back up the spout"

Our school is doing Writing Alive curriculum this year. We have a graphic organizer where we draw the pieces in order to retell. For a quick retell you can also use your fingers (hold onto your thumb with the other hand) First finger = somebody wants... Next finger = But... Ring finger = So, ___ Pinkie = In the end

So, to retell the Itsy Bitsy Spider you would say:
"The spider WANTS to climb up the water spout"
"BUT, the rain comes and washes him away"
"So, the sun comes up and dries the rain"
"IN THE END, the spider climbs back up the spout"

Thank you for sharing this. I am currently taking enrolled in college classes. My courses require me to work with a small group of children each week and do guided reading with them. I was trying to find a quick way to teach them about retelling. This is perfect.